honour
by gameboy100
Summary: Kalinko gets more than she bargained for when she said she would do a favor for somone. Rated M for later chapters i would also like to thank lucariofan for correcting my awful grammar :
1. beginnings

**Honour**

Kalinko Razzti, or Kal for short, was just getting out of bed when there was a loud thumping on her door.

"Who is it?" she yelled, still half asleep and quite annoyed by the loud thumping.

"Your late again, Kal. Now get up and be at the training ground in 5 minutes!"

Kal groaned heavily-she couldn't stand anymore training! She was already the best in her class at staff fighting; none could even land a blow on her anymore. It wasn't even a challenge. But, orders are orders...she supposed. She moved slowly, still half asleep, into the bathroom and looked in the mirror at her long black hair, her skinny figure-not devoid of muscle, but not overly muscular. Overall, average for a night elf. Her eyes looked like orbs of blue fire in the dim light of the room, and her skin was a typical purple colour, with hints of deep blue. She splashed some water on her face to wake her up fully, and ran out the door into the chilly foggy morning air.

As she made her way to the training ground, she slowed to enjoy the cold fog and the lush green trees around her. Then she rounded the corner, and looked over at the training grounds, which was basically just a field with various wooden dummies and archery target dummies. She saw her group and ran over to them.

"I'm here, I'm here."

"Well glad you could finally make it, Kal," said the instructor gruffly.

Kal just smirked and stood in line. She was thankful when one of the students asked, "so what is it today then?" Effectively shifting the attention from her.

"Today druids, it will be...shapeshifting practice!" He yelled, smiling fiendishly.

Kal was not bothered by this. _She_ could do all of the forms easily...most of the other druids, however, looked terrified.

"B-b-but I can't do that yet!" one of them stammered.

"Well today, you get to practice. So get on with it!" He snapped in response, quickly silencing any potential arguments.

So they all broke off into different parts of the ground, and began attempting to shapeshift. Kal was breezing through all of the forms in quick succession, when the instructor came up to her and said, "Kal, as you can do all of the forms so well, you can do me a favour."

"What favour?" She asked dully.

"Go into the forest and get me some strangle kelp-I need it for poison training with the rouges, this afternoon."

"If I have to," Kal replied with a lazy groan.

So she changed into cat form and charged off into the trees lining the training ground on her search. After about five or ten minutes of searching, she found some kelp, changed back to Night Elf form, picked it and put it into a little pouch around her waist, and changed once again into cat form. A funny idea came into her mind. _"Where do my clothes go when I change?" _She thought with a chuckle. Then as she was running through the forest, loving her heighted sense of smell, hearing, and the feel of grass beneath her paws, she heard voices not too far away. She stopped to catch her breath, blended into the shadows, and crept closer.

As she got closer, she could hear more of the conversation-not a lot of good it did her, however; it was in orcish. She crept even closer, until she was as close as she dared to go, and saw five orcs, all in armour. One seemed to be their leader; he was huge, tall and muscular, armoured all over in plate with an evil looking broadsword. He was clearly a warrior, and he looked so savage when she thought about it. He was having an argument with a smaller orc, who was about a foot shorter than the leader, but just as muscular. He was clad in black leather armour from head to toe, and he had two cruel looking curved daggers sheathed at his waist. The other three were sitting on a fallen tree, looking quite amused at the argument flaring in front of them. Two of the three looked to be warriors, but the last one sitting on the end looked very different from the rest-clad in red and black robes, carrying a long staff with a skull on the end that also had a black energy writhing around the skull. It filled her with a sense of dread just to look at it. _"He must be a warlock,"_ She thought. She had never met one before, but in her opinion, once was too many times.

She spent a further five minutes watching the argument until it finally ended-with the big orc slamming the pummel of his broadsword into the face of the smaller one. He looked up at the bigger orc with a mixture of hate and respect on his face, but then simply got up and sat next to the others trying to stop the furious bleeding of a broken nose. Then the realisation hit her, like a ton of bricks. "_There are orcs...very close to Dolanaar." S_he started to back away very carefully-aware that any snapping twig could give her away. Once she was a safe distance away, she turned around and bolted back to Dolanaar. She broke through the tree line and into a flat-out run, all thoughts of strangle kelp gone from her mind, and ran over to the instructor, changing back into a Night Elf in mid sprint.

"Orcs! Orcs in the grove outside Dolanaar!" She shouted to him, amidst screams and shouts from the other druids present. The instructor ran to the guards, and they quickly formed a search party of the best hunters, rouges, and druids currently in Dolanaar and went out to search. She had no clue as to what the outcome of the battle would be as she started to worry about all of the people she had seen, setting out on the hunt for Orc blood.


	2. The battle

_here the next chapter hope you like it i had fun writing it go on review you know you want to _

_as allways id like to thank lucariofan for correction my awful grammar.  
_

Kal couldn't stand it anymore. She needed to know what was going on! The worry for the brave warriors out there, searching for the orcs she had seen was too great, so with worry nagging at her she changed into her favourite form-the cat-and bounded off into the trees after the search party. She was running for a full ten minutes, all senses on high alert for any sound, smell, or sight of the battle she knew would be raging. Before she could hear the swinging of swords bouncing off one another and the savage bestial roar of the orcs as she started to run toward the sounds of battle, an arrow came whistling through the trees and imbedded itself in her right shoulder. She let out a roar of her own, and fell to the ground. She twisted her head around to look at her wound, grasped the arrow in her teeth, and pulled it out. She let out another agonised roar, and pushed herself up onto her paws, all of her weight on her three good legs, running towards the battle once more.

As she got to the clearing, the battle was raging intensely. She stood just inside the protective cover of the tree line, unseen...and froze. She had never seen anything more horrible in her life. She couldn't move, not even to turn away, as the five orcs decimated the search party. She watched in horror as some of her friends were cut down in front of her. Then she noticed him the warlock she had seen earlier-he was chanting furiously in what only could be demonic. Throwing curses and shadow bolts around, he was struggling with a particularly hard spell, and sweating like mad. Suddenly, she realised-he was losing control. Dark energy writhed around him as a foul smell like rotting meat wafted around her. Then the energy was swirling around him now, faster and faster and faster until there was a sound like a thunder crack, and all the dark energy exploded outwards. She was thrown backwards by the demonic shockwave, and the pain she felt was extreme. It felt almost as if all of her muscles were on white hot fire, then it went dark. After ten more seconds of agony, it went black as she thankfully passed out.

After two hours, she finally started to regain conciseness. All of her limbs felt stiff, and a little sore, but nowhere near the pain she had felt previously. As the shock started to wear off, she looked around at the utter devastation around her. Age old trees had been ripped up and thrown backwards, roots and all. The clearing had doubled in size, all of the earth was dry, cracked and scorched black. But then, then she noticed the bodies lying around her. They were all dead...everyone. Even the orcs they had been fighting. The warlock's body, however, was nowhere to be seen...nobody could have survived an explosion like that, could they? As she turned the body of a Night Elf over to check for signs of life, she stopped. When she saw his face, she was shell shocked-it was her instructor. She started to cry. She wept over the body for a long time, until she heard muffled shuffling sounds from behind a rock. She assumed it would be an animal caught in the blast, but she lay the instructor's body down gently and went to investigate anyway. What she saw behind that rock, she would never forget. It was an orc who had survived the battle, even though seriously wounded. She went over to him and crouched. He looked lucid enough, so she tried asking him what had happened in common. He replied with some broken common, "warlock control ran rock boom," then he passed out. His broken common might have been due to the fact he was seriously injured, but she didn't hold out much hope. Her duty to the alliance was to kill this orc, so she raised her staff to deliver a killing blow...but she couldn't do it. She couldn't kill a helpless opponent. She wasn't sure that she could kill her opponent in a fair fight, so she decided honour over duty.

She found some water to clean out the orc's wounds, and her own arrow wound that she had forgotten about in all of the chaos, but now by the stream the wound flared up with new ferocity. After cleaning her wound and filling her flask with water, she set about looking for vines and leaves to make a sling for herself. After a while, she returned to the orc, to find him stumbling around the wreckage of a clearing, stopping only at the bodies of his solders. She walked slowly up to him and said in common, "water for your wounds." He grunted and took the flask, and said in common, "thank you," before closing the dead orc's eyes. He then stumbled back to the rock, and sat behind it.

She followed carefully-not sure if the orc was going to pound her into fine paste at a moments notice. She had shown compassion, but they were still enemies after all.

She got to the rock, and the orc was just sitting there, not moving, eyes closed, look of pain twisting his features. "Are you ok?" she asked him.

"Yes, I'm fine, but my soldiers...they're dead, all of them." He was speaking now in perfect common, which was strange for an orc. She was curious, but decided to leave it for now. Instead she decided to try and comfort him. "There was nothing you could do...it wasn't your fault."

"Yes, it was its all my fault! I have never ever allowed a warlock into my ranks before, not until now, and look what happens. That fucking _bastard._"

Kal was taken aback by this sudden outburst of emotion-she had always been taught that orcs were savage, and didn't feel emotion like other beings. "I'm sorry," was all she could think of saying. She was shocked yet again. Then she heard running, very fast running. Suddenly, a group of druids thundered through the trees.

"What the hell are you doing Kal?" One of them shouted.

She turned to the orc, and whispered "run, run you fool." And that was what he did-he got up and thundered through the trees, fast as a wildcat. She was amazed, and she thought "_shit he was just stunned, he could have killed me anytime he wanted, why...didn't he?" T_hen she realised, "_he isn't running fast enough."_ She owed it to him that he be given a fighting chance, so she cast the only spell she could think of to slow the druids down. She started to cast and roots sprang up from the ground, tangling themselves around the feet of all the Night Elves present.

"What the hell?" one exclaimed, as all eyes turned to the only Night Elf without roots around her feet-Kal.

"What are you doing Kal?" The leader of Dolanaar shouted at her.

"Giving the orc a chance" she replied, with a defiant grin.

"Dam it girl! There will be consequences for your actions here today! Take her into custody!"

"S_hit, I hope it was worth it. I pray to elune that he got away..." _she thought, as she was dragged off to face her trial and punishment for being a traitor to the Alliance, Which carries a possible death sentence. Yet somehow, she felt that what she had done was right.


	3. The Trial

Kalinko sat in her prison cell, awaiting trial for her crimes against the alliance. It was a horrid place-damp, dark, and freezing cold. She was sitting on her bed...if you could call it that. It was more of a smooth slab of rock set into the wall, with two chains at the end for support and a threadbare linen sleeping bag thrown on top. One small window with steel bars set into it, and a steel door with a sliding shutter in it for passing food through. All the rumours she had heard about prison food had been too nice-it was disgusting. It had been two days of harsh treatment since the day in the clearing, and even after all she had been through, since she was still glad she had done it.

There was a solid bang on her door that morning. She was to stand trial today at 3:00 pm. Five minutes before, she heard, as she expected, footsteps coming down the hall. They stopped at her door, the shutter slid open, and a guard looked through. He saw her and slammed it shut again, and a jingle of keys later the door was open, and the guard stepped in with a stony look on his face.

"Get up traitor; you've got somewhere to be."

She got up silently and walked over to the door, and holding her hands out for the chains he had no doubt brought with him. He fastened the chains around her wrists-tighter than was needed-but she didn't complain or cry out as the metal pinched her skin, which seemed to annoy the guard.

"_Oh great, a guy on a power trip. Just my luck," _she thought irritably.

She was escorted down the dark corridor to the prisoner's entrance, for the room she was to be tried in. she entered the room and sat down. A few minutes later the room started to fill up, with officials, witnesses, the jury, and of course, the judge. The judge was an elderly Night Elf, who was very tall with a typical night elf build, his skin a deep purple. He sat down and the bailiff at his side addressed the crowd and Kal alike.

"Please rise, honourable judge Faz'uel residing." Faz'uel raised his hand, and they all sat back down as the court fell deathly silent.

The judge pointed a bony finger at Kal. "Where is this girl's representative? "

Kal stood up and replied. "I have chosen to represent myself, your honour." Silently, she was thinking to herself, _"None of them would represent me anyway."_

The judge did not look surprised in the slightest, after the next twenty minutes of back and forth questioning , such as 'what was she like?', 'how did she behave?', and 'did she a maintain good attendance in her studies?' the damning evidence was finally presented.

The man who had ordered her to be taken into custody stood in the witness box, and spoke to the court. "What did you see, general?" The judge asked, looking considerably bored by this point.

"I saw her crouched down next to the orc, staff in hand. It looked as though she were about to finish him off, but then she helped it to its feet, whispered something and let it run off. We were about to give chase when roots sprang from the earth and wrapped themselves around our feet, and the only one there without roots entangling her feet was Kalikow," he said with a satisfied grin on his face.

It was then Kal, for the first time, was truly scared for her life. It had all seemed like a dream, so unreal, but now it looked all too real.

She panicked, and shouted out "It was an act of compassion! I couldn't kill him when he was injured and could not fight back! If I did I would be...a monster!" This outburst shocked everyone in the room.

The judge looked especially taken back. She didn't know if she had struck a nerve with her sudden statement, or whether it was the ferocity, conviction, and above all else, suddenness of it. She had barely said a word in the whole trial. The judge called for her to be removed, and she was taken swiftly back to her cell and roughly thrown inside the door, which was slammed and locked behind her.

She moved over to her slab of rock, and cried, just letting all of her anger, upset, and anguish she had tried to keep buried out, and all in one go. She did not know how long she was sat on that slab crying-it must have been a few hours at least, because when the unexpected knock came she nearly jumped out of her skin.

In a very weak and raspy voice from all the crying, she said "So, when the date of my execution?"

"Still as cocky as ever," was the guard's curt reply.

She looked up. This had not been the reaction she had expected. She looked him in the face with an expression of pure confusion. "You're not going to be killed," he said, with a voice like ice and a face to match. "Instead, you're being banished from all Night Elf territory under pain of death."

"What?" Kal asked, unable to understand the words coming out of this apparently insane guard's mouth.

"Has your brain gone mouldy, or are you just stupid? Get up now, or _I'll_ kill you."

He grabbed her, forced her to her feet, and marched her to the front of the building, into the waiting prisoner transport caravan. He muttered all the way, but in her still dazed state she could only catch the words "filthy traitor". The next thing she knew, the caravan was trundling down the cobbled streets of Dolanaar, destined for the dock at Rut Theran village. By the time the caravan had reached its destination, she had snapped out of her daze and walked out of the caravan head held high, until she was hit in the side of the face with a round, red, foul smelling object, which left its disgusting juices all over her face. She realised that there was a mob all around her, and they were pelting her with rotten fruit and vegetables. Most of the nasty projectiles missed her head, landing harmlessly enough on to her torso and legs. When the boat finally arrived she walked on to the deck, turned around, and took on last look at her beloved homeland. One that she was sure she would never return to. She drank every inch of it in, before the guards unlocked her chains, stepped off the boat, and joined the rest of the mob that seemed to be getting larger. She then turned and went below deck into her cabin, head full of fearful thoughts-thoughts of where she would go next, and what might lie ahead, uncertainty wracking her nerves.


	4. A strange new land

Kalinko was sitting below deck with her head in her hands, filled with grief over losing her homeland, and the fact that she would be shunned by every Night Elf that knew of her supposed 'terrible' crime, but she had gotten off lightly. She could have been killed, and she wasn't banished from Dwarven, Human, or D_**raenei lands, so she started looking at the bright side. She had the chance to go to places she hadn't been before, meet new and interesting people, encounter races she had only heard of, and most of all, get a fresh start. She was not going to be the kind of person who freezes in battle, she was going to get tough, even if it killed her. Just then, interrupting her thoughts, she heard a shout. **_

_"**Land ho!" **_

_**She stood and walked up onto the main deck. She noticed that they were pulling up to the dock of Auberdine. Once they arrived, she would need to get off the boat, go down the dock till she could turn right, and get the boat to the human main capital, Stormwind. And she would need to do it quickly, too-she didn't like the idea of being mobbed again. So when the boat stopped and moored, she got off, and to her surprise there was no mob. However, she walked as quickly as she could towards the boat to Stormwind. When it arrived, she went straight below deck and sat down, and thought of things to keep her mind busy while she was at sea. Thankfully, the journey was not a long one-2 hours later she was walking off the boat and into the biggest harbour she had ever seen. It was massive! There were passenger boats of all shapes and sizes, but the biggest ships in the harbour were the warships of the Alliance. She found the ramp which led into the main part of the city and was faced with a huge archway, flaked with stone lions on each side.**_

_**It was when she got to the trade district of this massive city that she realised she had no money what so ever. All she had were her shapeshifting skills, magic, and the clothes on her back-no weapon or armour. Finding money would be her next task. She walked around thinking for a bit, when she heard two human men talking about the pub they were in last night, The Lions Pride inn. "**____**That's as good a place as any to start,**__**" she thought. **_

_**So, she asked them where it was. "Just outside Stormwind," they both said at once. She thanked them, and walked off, heading to the main gate and along a huge bridge, with statues of some of the old heroes of the Alliance on each side. She looked at them with awe and continued walking past. Once outside Stormwind she took a leisurely stroll down the dirt path, admiring the trees and the scenery in general. Ten minutes of slow walking later, she found a little village which, she discovered, was called Goldshire, according to the sign post. The inn was the biggest building in the place; she walked in and up to the bar and lent on it.**_

_"**What will it be?" the barmaid asked over the counter. She was a short human woman, young and kind looking, with shoulder length blond hair and blue eyes, and she was wearing a barmaid's apron. **_

_"**Nothing today...are you looking for staff?" Kal said, in her new no nonsense approach.**_

_"**We are, as it happens. Can you make a drink?" **_

_"**I can try," Kal replied honestly. **_

_**So Kal stepped around to the other side of the bar, got a glass and attempted to pull a pint. She jumped when the beer tap made a loud gurgling sound and dropped the glass, which smashed all over the floor.**_

_"**Glad that was mostly foam," said the barmaid laughing.**_

_"**I'm so sorry," Kal said, bending down to pick up the shattered bits of glass, grabbing a cloth to wipe up the spilt beer.**_

_"**Tell you what, I'll give you a job waiting tables and cleaning up after the guests...if you promise to stay away from the bar," the barmaid said, still laughing.**_

_"**But why? I dropped the glass and spilt beer all over the place."**_

_"**Because you tried, and cleaned up after yourself when you made the mess. Hard to find people like that anymore; most human men and women would have left it, but not you. That's why," she said with a deadly serious look on her face, all trace of humour gone. "Me name's Betty, by the way." She offered her hand to Kal.**_

_"**Mine's Kalinko," Kal replied, shaking Betty's hand.**_

_**The job, as it turned out, came with its own bedroom-the cost of which was deducted from Kal's wages at the end of the week, but it was only ten silver out of forty, so that still left her with thirty, which was ok for her. She looked around her new room. It was basic, but still, it was home.**_

_**There was a cosy looking bed in the corner, a nightstand alongside it with a lamp on top. In the other corner was a wardrobe, and a chest of drawers opposite. That was it-basic but home. she started her new job the next day, and it was already getting dark, so she undressed and got into bed, and soon fell into a dreamless sleep. **_

_**She woke the next morning, fresh and wide awake. It was the best night's sleep she had in a while, She got dressed into the only clothes she had-a dirty white linen shirt and bottoms. "**____**First thing I need are new clothes,**__**" she thought, as she went downstairs and into the bar to find Betty.**_

_**She found her in the kitchen talking to the chef, a big burly human by the name of James. They were chatting when she walked in. Betty turned to Kal, and said, "Right you can start cleaning in here first, and then move on to the guest rooms. We only have one in residence at the moment and he's going out later so he will be out of the way." And with that, Kal got to work cleaning the kitchen. Betty walked out of the room to deal with some rowdy customers at the bar.**_

_**James suddenly met her gaze. He looked right at her and said "I know who you are, Kalinko Razzti. And I know what you did." **_


	5. Hard life

Kal just stood there, completely stunned. She didn't think that the news of her crime would have gotten this far, so quickly. As she stood not moving, a stunned expression on her face, an evil little grin slowly spread across James's face. "What, didn't think anyone would know silly little night elf?" He taunted in a condescending voice.

"S_hit, he's got me and there nothing I can do," _she thought glumly to herself

"Cat got your tongue?" He said, laughing at his own joke.

"W-w-what are you going to do?" Kal stammered back at him.

"Well two things are going to happen-firstly you're going to get the fuck out of this inn and never come back, and secondly you're going to give me last night's pay. Can't be much since you have only been here a day, but ah well, its spending money," said James, the grin getting wider.

Kal felt utterly defeated-she couldn't do anything. She obviously had no choice, so she gave him all of the money she had and walked out of the inn with no explanations to Betty.

She started walking up the dirt path to Stormwind just as it started to rain. Kal was in a dark mood, so she didn't care whether she got wet and caught her death. She didn't care that there were possibly bandits along the path. She just trudged on until she got to the entrance of the great city, which had lost some of its splendour and glory in her eyes.

She passed people in the trade district, drenched to the bone, her clothes looking like rags shivering in the now torrential downpour. No one even looked in her direction. She made her way to the park district, and found a semi dry bench under a tree and decided to sleep there for the night, as it was the closest she had to shelter now.

When she woke up the next morning she was still shivering and cold and it was still raining. She didn't know which way to turn. She found a local tavern, went in and swiftly got thrown out again by the burly owner. "No street filth!" He shouted at her while she was lying face down in the mud.

"O_k, I need to get my priorities right. First I need food... and then shelter," _she thought thinking back to her night on the bench and shivering a bit more. With this thought in mind, she set off to the trade district where the traders were packing up for the day because of the rain. She walked past a food stall, and while the owners back was turned she took a few apples and some bread, walking away in a hurry, waiting for the shouting to inevitably start behind her, naming her as a thief. But she was lucky for once, and it never came. She headed back to the park and nestled herself in to a corner between two buildings so she would be a little warmer, starting to nibble at an apple. She finished her apple and wrapped her arms around her chest and slumped against the wall. She was about to nod off to sleep when another person walked past and saw her- he was a human, about 5 foot tall and wearing a full black cape, with a hood and an evil look in his eyes.

"Well well, what do we have here? A little homeless elf...and a thief by the looks of it," the man observed, his eyes on her apples and loaf of bread.

"I'm not a thief," she lied in a barely audible voice-she couldn't muster the energy to say more than that, she was very cold and on the verge of passing out, and she didn't even feel the water pounding down on her anymore.

"Well then elf, how did you manage to get that food then?"

Kal couldn't muster up an answer. The man must have taken this as an admission of guilt, because he grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her out of her corner, saying "Right, off to the guard house with you then, thief." He half dragged and half carried her along the wet streets until they reached the guard house. He dragged Kal in and explained her to the guard on duty.

"Got another one for ya."

"Well you know what to do, throw her in the cells for the night and let her out in the morning," The guard replied.

"Yeah yeah, standard procedures. See you in the Lions Pride when you get off," he said smiling.

Kal was dragged down to the cells-too familiar a sight, lately-and dumped in a heap in the first available. She crawled to the stone slab and wrapped herself in the raggedy linen blanket, thankful for the warmth. The hatch opened a few minutes later, and her nights food was placed into her cell. She got off the slab weakly, and made her way over to the food, starting to nibble at it gratefully-she never thought she would be glad to be in a prison cell.

She got back on the slab, and fell into a dreamless sleep once again. She was woken the next morning by the noise of her cell door opening, and being pulled out of bed and dragged up stairs, pushed out onto the stormy street. She couldn't believe it was still raining, it had been raining for the past three days straight by now. Kal was feeling depressed and lonely the only people that had talked to her during the last few three days had been angry guards. She hated the way her life had turned out. Kal started to walk to the park but stopped on the bridge over one of Stormwind's many canals, as even darker thoughts started to enter her mind. "W_ho would miss me if I ended my life right now...I'm just a speck of dust in the world...no one even knows I exist...I have achieved nothing in my life, I'm just no good to anyone...I'm useless, I can't go one living like this, it's just better to stop living then continue on struggling through this..._" she climbed up onto the edge of the bridge and screamed "I HATE MY LIFE," and flung herself head first into the empty space between the sky and the water. On the way down, she thought only one thing.

"_I am ready to die." _

She hit the water with a loud splash, sinking down deeper and deeper. Kal's head started to feel light and fluffy, as she gagged and tried to take a breath, but her lungs only found water as she blacked out.


End file.
